Masked
by Lunar Froxy
Summary: Everyone always think that Eduardo has been so serious with everything, but only one bird already saw the radical changes from him over the course of his life, the one that has seen everything with her own blue eyes. (The last prequel of Love's Eternal Light) Note: Will be rewritten later.


Chapter 1  
Demeanor

Once we may ask what the purpose of life is; the purpose of every aspect that happen, and they seem endless and trivial. Such thing might be the very answer that we seek in life, as the answer remains a mystery until the end of our time. Iridescent of life itself is a fascinating thing, the riddled message that promised a deep unravelement over the hidden quest that capable to answer the very purpose of life itself.

Such experiences were truly divine for one who treasured it as gem that adorning their life, adding more value to the already valuable life, or simply – out of metaphor – wisdom.

Sadly, the crusade isn't nice; it filled with shattered glass that bleeds your talon in every step you take. The walls filled with harsh thorn that stabbed you every time you make a wrong move, and the angst of the seemingly endless maze was driven some people nuts, or simply gave up and carry on. Leaving the message still undeciphered, and losing the pretty gem that was too good to be ignored.

Even sometimes we wondered what kind of message that existed from seemingly trivial details, an occasion where everything is blatantly plain?

Such things are probably too far to be avidly clear if you don't understand the basic concept of the quest itself.

While some birds already learn from them, the harsh slap from reality that shaped them into whom they are now… is simply as looking back and let the memories guide you.

* * *

Old age wasn't something to be frantic or anxious about when it came to Mimi, she was staring at the sky with her old eyes that still possessed her blue vibrant eyes. They were also the very eyes that had seen all the things that happened for her entire life, radical changes over the circumstances and birds that she knew.

Mimi's beak possessed smile when her eyes caught the sight of her grand-nieces, thriving within the glorious light of the sun that existed since the day she was born, and never one day missed its duty to offer the world with light.

Concealment probably the best word to describe the kind of situation where the light didn't exist, covered with the angry clouds and brewing tempest above; but never, the sun itself ceased away.

The same that applied to her brother; no one would ever believe the kind of birds Eduardo was in the past, his serious demeanor wasn't truly his real face.

She stared at Carla, Bia and Tiago arguing about something – probably she would never know – but her hunch told her that it was something have to do with Tiago's pranks.

She didn't recalled the amount of time Tiago succeeded in endeavor to get her into his mess, but for someone that already experienced some similar things in her youth, she had a lot of patience to spare.

Mimi chuckled when she remembered the kind of birds her brother, Eduardo when he was little – while some might doubt – Tiago was the perfect recreation of Eduardo's chickhood, carefree, mischievous and energetic.

She retraced the memories in her aged mind, slowly selecting a series of sequential memories that contained the one she wanted to remember. Like an adult that dug her diary book from her chickhood possession, she needed to dwell into the drawer deeply until the memory orbs finally found, promising the wisdom to the one who listen.

She snatched them out of the drawer and set them on the table, those memory orbs had seen better days, while some still maintained their roundness of perfection – a metaphor of happy memories – others have simply deteriorate over time, giving the viewer only a fuzzy imaginary of a certain something. She also noticed that some bore a jagged and sharp edge over the orb, the one that contained the despair and grief in her life.

For the sake of deep understatement, viewing the jagged memory orb is a must. In order for someone to gain a deeper wisdom, the experience of surrealism over the insight that planted deeply within, not only came from jubilated memories but also the sadness and hurt.

Mimi then arranged the memories in a sequential order, and one by one, thread of red that connected them manifest as she entered the first memories, the day where all of this started.

* * *

 ** _20 years ago_**

Mimi was staring blankly into the outside world over her hollow, staring at the blue clear sky that shared the color of her eyes. She was deep in thought about something… perhaps she just missed her Mother. Life wasn't oh and grand for both Mimi and Eduardo. Their Mother was killed during the siege of the humans several years before, and being a slow and small birds, they couldn't do anything but watch as their Mother lost her breath slowly until it became eerily still.

Her father was no better – being the tribe leader – was demanding all of his attention to the tribes; until sometimes, both Mimi and Eduardo felt left out, the taste of the family that promised a joy and laugh was a distant dream in the past, and they had to carry on their plain life.

But when it came to discipline, her Father never absent to remind and punish them if they disobeyed it, something that made the whole situation even worse, especially with Eduardo.

Since the death of their Mother, Eduardo cheerful expression receded a bit – even not lost completely. The main reason was their Father, an expectation that put inside him, that one day he would be the next tribe's leader when their Father's time was up.

He could only nod, but Mimi knew that he was sighing – perhaps scowling inside. Eduardo never liked to be bounded by rules, he hated them like he hated humans, and it took so much on his freedom, the one he should have got as a bird.

An irony when humans put birds as the symbol of freedom when the real circumstances were no other that them, bounded to the ground for the rest of his life when he got a chance to fly with his wings? That was a very sick joke.

A loud noise alerted Mimi about someone else's attendance in her hollow, snapped her from the trance she got. She turned her head and saw him; her only love in her entire life.

"Oh hello there, Allejandro!" Mimi exclaimed, moving closer to greet his guess. "What brings you here?"

Allejandro was fixing his stare on the beautiful face of Mimi – in the past… sure you know her might be quite a charm right? – And quickly his beak formed a smile. He looked unease, nervous when he tried to utter his next words, sighing deeply.

Mimi and Allejandro was met during a quite odd circumstances, for a reason, they were met by accident when Mimi was just fuming from her brother pranks, her sticky and stained plumage was averted her gaze from the sky, not to mention the series of insult she was thinking to make her brother pay.

Then it happened, she accidentally bumped into Allejandro and sent some of the sticky mess into his body as well, and quickly shot Mimi a glare; the next action that came into his mind never been executed when he saw the one that bumped into him, his eyes widened in awestruck, and quickly apologized.

"Oh! Sorry about that! I didn't see you there." Allejandro exclaimed.

Mimi was blushing when she saw that bird she bumped into, a steady peach colored hues was adorned her face. "No, no… I'm the one should be sorry. I was too caught up with my brother silly prank until I didn't notice you there."

Allejandro then noticed the sticky mess that run down across his mid section. "Probably not the best prank ever." He stated. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Mimi" She replied softly, blushing.

"Allejandro." He replied, extended his wing.

Her face was brightly red. Nonetheless, she reached his wing and smile. Ever since, their relationship was blossoming like a flower in spring: vibrant, fragrance and filled with joy. It didn't take so much time for both of them to grow a much deeper feelings towards each other, and that day, Allenjandro confirmed that.

He still left Mimi standing with bewildered silence; he then scratched the hollow wooden surface as he took another deep breath and finally spoke up. Words were tasted bitter in his beak when he tried to confess what he wanted to tell Mimi. "I want to… ask you… perhaps." He paused and shot her an awkward smile. "You know… spending sunset together?" He uttered the last piece of words slowly, closing his eyes and bracing for the worst.

Mimi eyes were widened when she heard Allejandro asking her to spend sunset together – or simply, a date. She was unsure about what to answer, sure she got some birds that tried to woo her in the past, but none of them was succeeded to enter the more stable and serious relationship.

Allejandro's beak formed a frown when he realized that he already put his friendship with Mimi in jeopardy, still, he wanted to know if Mimi shared the feeling he got for her.

Mimi then snapped out of her trance, and let her heart spoke for itself. "Yes, I love to do that."

Allejandro couldn't believe what he was just hearing, his ears were filled with the echo of Mimi answer, and still he couldn't believe it and asked for confirmation, "Re… really?"

Mimi giggled when she saw the surprised looks on Allejandro's face, she always thought him as cute, and now he was asking her for a date. "Yes, why you change your mind?" Mimi asked teasingly.

"Of… of course not!" he said with a stutter. "So… um where we do we met? I mean I know some good place to spend the sunset… maybe you…"

"Surprise me then." Mimi stated lovingly.

Allejandro stopped his blabbering, smiling heartily to her. "Okay, I'll see you later at sunset." He then flew away with soul full of triumphant joy.

Mimi still giggled and shook her head when Allejandro leave her hollow. She was indeed started to feel something else with him, only she didn't have the courage to tell him personally. It filled Mimi's heart with warm of fuzzy feeling that come in a single package, and inside of it, a burst of mixed feeling erupted and engulfing her with their spell.

She continued to possess the smile as she walked closer into her hollow entrance; the sight of the blue sky with blue blurs adorned the sky into an artistic level, hues of cerulean and azure was adding the marvel of the clearness of the sky, as well as reflecting the inner jubilation that currently resided within her soul.

Her eyes then caught another glimpse of blue in the distance. Their very sight already pasted a firm confirmation of who were them, simply because such occasion wasn't something uncommon.

She quickly noticed her brother masked demeanor, the one that reserved when he need to face his father in advance so he didn't have to suffer any prolonged advice of his Father, nodding occasionally to assure her Father that he was listening.

Mimi was more than know that Eduardo was simply giving their father a deaf ear, just in order to escape the punishment or any other kind of misfortune he could have gained if he restrained and fought back.

Although sometimes, Mimi know that Eduardo mask was cracked a bit and ready to strike back. He was tempted to return the kind of words to his Father when he kept telling him about growing up and started to take responsibility – just a little whisper about that word was enough to send Eduardo into a bad mood state or scowl.

The reason was probably freedom, like we already knew before; Eduardo was free-spirited, and he hated being bound to the ground more likely a cage which bars made of responsibility for the rest of his life.

Still, it wasn't an option to retort his Father, no matter how much he wanted to return the verbal jab his Father gave him, he could only nod and hope to finish the conversation quickly, neither he cared about being responsibility or whatever the siblings of it.

He let out a sigh of relief when her Father finally got some interruption about something from one of the tribe's patrol, and quickly left Eduardo alone with himself. What Eduardo saw in his father wasn't _his Father_ but someone else, someone that acted like a insightful stranger rather than being an image of Father for him.

Eduardo missed his Mother greatly, never in his life that he forgot the kindness her Mother radiated to him, every lullaby that she sung when he was little, every time her Mother told him that she loved him, only a distant beautiful memories in the past, which when he brought to the present for comparison, it ached his heart badly.

He just wanted her Father attention, one day to spend together as a _family_ not a tribe's leader. But asking her Father to do that was something similar to ask the sun to skip a day, _Never. Going. To. Happen._

Eduardo then watched his Father's presence slowly dispersed in the sky and leaving him alone with the silence. He stretched his body and let out a yawn, removing the seriousness in his face and reverting to his ownself, his mind already racing to seek the kind of fun he was looking to wipe away the boredom from prolonged exposure from his Father _advice_.

He then spotted Mimi with a triumphant smile pasted firmly in her beak. His mind wondered the kind of thing that allowed her sister to smile the widest in her life. Eduardo shrugged and averted his gaze somewhere else, hoping to spot anything that could help him back into his pleasant state.

But before he could think anything else, his stomach announced the lack of daily sustenance he required to keep his energy intact, and the desire to fulfill the request was stronger than everything that currently running in the process tree on his mind. It didn't take more than twenty seconds for Eduardo to set his course into the abundance number of Brazil nuts trees.

While the recent deforestation from the humans that took the life of his mother did reduce the number of the nuts, the grove expanded deeper into the Amazon jungle, promising a bigger number of those nuts. Eduardo's flight to the site wasn't filled with something eye-catching – or to put simply, plain.

The grove materialized within his eyes after roughly five minutes of flight, he descended into a random tree and started to pick the nuts that hanged to appease his hunger. He cracked the nuts easily, and quickly dug his beak to eat the goodness inside those plainly chocolate-colored shells; His face was lit in delight as the nuts touched his tongue and activated his savory senses.

His ears caught a conversation from two scarlet macaws that talked about something that involved about harpy eagles, and their conversation was clear that they both hated them greatly.

Eduardo could only shrug, others might see them as a threat, but he had his own opinion about them. He continued to eat the remaining nuts as he listened to the rest of their conversation.

* * *

Mimi was heading straight into the waterfall, in order to get herself at her best – surely she wanted to look at best for her _real_ first date. She braced herself for the cold sensation that might hit her from direct contact with the freezing water, before sighing blissfully as her body adapted to the coldness of the water.

The water rapidly wiped the accumulated dust and dirt, revitalizing her both body and soul. She then stepped out of the waterfall and shook the droplets away from her plumage, and satisfied that her feather now as smooth as silk.

Her soul was tickled with the kind of reaction Allejandro was going to have the moment he saw her state at her best. She preened herself as best as she could, hoping the result would bring Allejandro into the state she was thinking before. Satisfied, she let the warm sunbeam heated her damp feathers as she ate the star fruit she carried back before and started to eat the flavorful juice.

Still, the burst of flavor in her beak was ignored with a higher priority process that lingered within her mind; the thought of – probably – staring a _real_ relationship in her life was bringing a heaven-tier of happiness in her soul.

She trusted Allejandro completely, the time they shared together already convinced her that he was the perfect one for her. Allejandro had always been there for her, the kind of best friend that cared a lot about her state. When she cried, he was there to console and wipe her tears, when she smiled, he was there to share the laugh with her, boosting the happiness even more with his presence next to her; he always know how to make Mimi's frown turned upside down.

His face always brought comfort to her, every time he was there, she felt something that she thought had been lost ever since her Mother death, the kind of warm gesture that seeped into her heart easily, the warmth of love.

Mimi shook her head, No… perhaps it was too fast to jump into that conclusion. She still had to see the kind of birds Allejandro was, although her mind was completely convinced that this date was going to be perfect and surreal experience for the first time being loved completely.

Or was it?

* * *

 ** _A/N: Ah yes, the first chapter of the last prequel from Love's Eternal Light. hope you enjoy it, but keep in mind that this one's updates will be halted until I finished Winter's Summer. The reason I wrote this first is because it took more domination over my head and eclipsed the idea for upcoming winter's summer updates, now with this chapter finally done being written... Voila! I can return back into writing winter's summer until it done._**

 ** _Now, this story was supposed to be a standalone one (nothing have to do with LEL series) but since the poll told me that you folks really like Frost, there, I made it into an even bigger scene to finally makes everything clear with Love's Eternal light and its prequels-sequels._**

 ** _Speaking of poll, I have one currently need to be filled for my upcoming project, so please please please help me filled it._**

 ** _Another one is this story isn't a one shot like the rest of the prequel, so wait for the next chapter, don't leave it just yet!_**

 ** _Finally, I can has review?_**


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